Umpires aren’t that strong, they are weakened by garlic and sunlight and repelled by icons of faith.
So, this thread and its September time stamp makes it time for me to fess up on perhaps the worst prognostication I’ve ever made. In fact, were I an ESPN commentator, I would be mocked and laughed at because it has turned out to be so ridiculous. My only excuse is that I’m a White Sox fan, and that might have colored my outlook just a wee bit. LOL
We had a strong regular season last year only to show poorly in the playoffs. I stated to my friends that the “problem” is the pathetic, weak, AL Central in which we reside. I stated that our competition was so poor that we simply weren’t ready for the strong competition in the playoffs.
I stated that, were I the manager, I would create an “imaginary” division of the best teams in baseball and include the Sox in that division. I would post it in the locker room and in the dugout with updated standings every day. This way, my team would be measuring itself against the truly worthy opponents and not the dogs of the AL Central.
So, honoring the OP “MLB: September” mandate, how has my brilliant idea turned out? Well, in the “it is such a crappy division so we shouldn’t even measure ourselves by it” division, we have been in third place for almost the entire season. Now, with the end near, we are in 2nd place, one game ahead of MN and three behind Cleveland. In my “imaginary” division worthy of our consideration, we would be 26 games behind the Dodgers!
I will sit in a corner with my head bowed. 
It is a bit of a head scratcher the Sox are doing as mediocrely as they are. What also astounds me is the relatively poor in-game fan support. I went to a couple games two weeks ago, when the Sox were just 3 out (like now), and plenty of games to go, plenty of games against the teams ahead of them, and definitely in the thick of a playoff hunt. How many people showed up for the game? A pathetic 15,000 (and looked like fewer). Meanwhile, the well-under-.500 Cubs are drawing 30K+ a game. (Sox overall attendence average is around 24K, which puts them in the bottom half of baseball, but only a few teams in.)
As a Cubs fan, I wanted to get up and yell for the crowd to get into the game – this is September, this is a playoff hunt that can plausibly still result in a spot and where is everyone? Wrigley would have been a madhouse were the Cubs three behind in September.
Looks like the White Sox are 10-5 since LaRussa left.
Small sample size, but the team hasn’t had a run like that since the beginning of the season. And they were considered an up and coming team with regular playoff aspirations before he was hired, so maybe it was less the team/division and more the folks in charge.
Not an unpopular or uncommon opinion in the South Side, I know.
I remember it well, because the Yankees were one of the teams. Angel Hernandez is a terrible umpire and acts like an arrogant ass on the field, but at least two of those particular calls were so close that hey were hard to figure even in slo-mo. Still, I enjoyed watching his calls get overturned, repeatedly. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
The Sox frequently seem to struggle to draw fans, unless they’re playing very well. Right now, they are, indeed, within striking distance of the division lead, and have been riding that hot streak with Miguel Cairo acting as manager. OTOH, they had been inconsistent all season, and I wonder if a lot of fans had given up on them earlier in the year, and haven’t bothered to come back.
The Cubs, on the other hand, have historically been able to get 30K to a game, as long as the weather is nice, no matter how the team is doing. I ascribe this to Cubs games having become essentially very large beer parties for fans in their 20s and 30s.
Yes.
Angel isn’t even the worst umpire at calling balls and strikes. He is bad, but there are others who, according to the stats, are worse.
Stats might be misleading. Which is worse, missing 5 borderline calls that were within an inch of the line or missing 2 calls that were 3 inches off the plate?
That’s a solid question, and I am not sure there is an objective answer. Obviously, an Eric Gregg call where the pitch is literally a foot off the plate is more infuriating than a guy blowing a call that missed by one inch.
But in terms of the rules of baseball, it’s technically just as bad.
I suspect the worst umps are blowing calls further off the plate more than good umps. I’m not sure how else it’d go.
I have no problem believing there are worse umps at calling strikes and balls (and the calls in the field).
Where Hernandez goes wrong is by compounding erroneous calls by violating the prime directive of umpires - he makes it about himself and acts in a prominent manner. A good umpire is nigh invisible the vast majority of the time. If a fan can often guess correctly that an in-game altercation/argument with an umpire reported in the news probably involves him is a very bad thing.
That said, these days, accuracy AND consistency are both measured. Certainly by stathead fans but, one suspects, also by MLB. So, yes, there are people checking if an ump is consistently only missing by an inch or inconsistently missing some calls way off the plate.
Apropos the pacemaker, I should have mentioned that the first time one is installed, you are limited to nTestrictions. The operation itself is scarcely worse than filling a tooth.
We don’t really know how bad the umpiring was in the old days. The TV didn’t have a strike zone set up. I recall watching one game on TV when I happened to be in Seattle. After 26 consecutive putouts, the 27th batter was called safe when he was clearly out by a full step. It was amazing. Terrible umpiring cost the pitcher a perfect game. Of course this was before replays.
BTW, when I first started watching baseball, there were only three umpires. With a runner on first, the third base umpire would move to near second base. So it is not a case of “We use four umpires because we always have.” They did use six in the world series.
This was in Detroit. Jim Joyce was the umpire and Armando Galarraga was the pitcher.
I’m not sure how old you are, but they started using 4 umpires with the 1952 season. I possibly watched a 3 umpire game but at age 3, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t aware of it.
I’ve seen it where one umpire is injured and they go to the old three umpire situation for the rest of the game.
Could not agree more.
That’s REALLY far back. Like seventy years back.
Anyway; I am still holding out a tiny bit of hope Toronto could still win the division, something that seemed completely impossible a month ago. Now only 5.5 back, and they have three games against the Yankees coming up.
Hernandez should have just been an NBA official. He’d have fit in just fine.
I went to my first MLB game in 1946. I was 9. I didn’t recall that they went to four umps already in 1952.
Interesting squabble between the District of Columbia and the Nationals.
Anyone who believes a word a sports team says about ‘development’ is a fool. Although I have been to the Nats stadium and it definitely isn’t a ghost town surrounding it
2 more for Judge today. 58 and 59.
So Judge is close to a Triple Crown. He’s carried the Yanks Offensively while playing excellent defense all year. His team should win the division. So who will they give the MVP to instead?